Life marches on

The last two weeks have held alot of change for us here at Lion's Gate. John Michael went through exploratory surgery to give us an idea of how critical his kidney condition was and thankfully the doctor believes he will be able to save the kidneys without a threat of dialysis. What a relief-yet still it rests on John Michael's shoulders- time will tell if he is mature enough to handle it.
Lance has now been a week in Haifa, Israel. I feel there is great purpose in his semester there and pray for his protection. He says it is absolutely beautiful and you can see for miles in all directions. His four roommates are all from Israel and he likes them all. They have all served in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) which gives them common ground right from the start. He has one month of Uplan which is intensive language training six hours a day six days a week. Then in late February he will start classes. He seems a bit overwhelmed with it all right now but sounds happy.
I finally can sit in my livingroom with a fire glowing brightly from our freshly installed fireplace insert-its motor gently humming filling the room with warm blasts of air. We now have two inserts in two fireplaces which at thirty degrees outside makes it plenty warm inside. This is our heat source and we struggle with installing anything more that would make us more dependent on electricity. The wood floor went in last week and it is so beautiful I won't allow shoes, dogs or cats in the room. The dogs lay at the doorway and try every now and then to sneak in but I won't allow it. The fireplace facade is the last thing needed to finish the room. The framing is built, we just need to drywall and paint it.
We are working diligently to move off the grid and become sustainable in our own right but sometimes feel it is an overwhelming task. There are days when it seems it should be our highest priority and other days when I just want to sell everything and just rest for awhile with no animals to take care of, no fruit trees to prune, ponds to fill,gardens to till and plant. I think if we could just hire one person who might live on the land rent free and work here we would progress much more quickly. I guess that is something I will have to take to the Lord in prayer.